A HISTORY OF NORFOLK derived. Some of the pebbles bear very clear marks of having been used as hammers for flint-chipping. It is worthy of note as an indica- tion of the methods employed by the toolmaker in the Neolithic age, that many of these used pebbles were quite small, one being only an inch and a half long. Possibly they may have been used as punches, and so helped to produce those elastic blows which are generally considered to be an essential condition of successful flaking. Several large fragments of flint, apparently disused cores, were found which had been used as hammer-stones, and it is not unlikely that they were used in connection with the quartzite pebbles in the manufacture of implements. In the course of Canon Greenwell's excavations the discovery was made of some fragments of chalk which had been sculptured in the form of a human leg or arm, etc. These had been shaped by means of flint flakes, and they certainly present an interesting piece of evidence of the state of artistic skill of man in Neolithic times. Bones broken in order that the marrow might be extracted, have been mentioned among the objects discovered. Upon close examination they were found to be those of a small species of ox, probably Bos longifrons. Moreover they were found to be the bones of very young calves, and this circumstance is of great importance as it tends to show that milk formed a large part of the food of the ancient people associated with the digging of these pits. It was this which led them to kill the calves at such an early age. Bones of other animals include those of the goat or sheep, horse, pig and red deer. The dog was represented by several bones, apparently those of old animals, and the inference is that when on account of their age they were no longer useful for hunting they were made to serve as food. The importance of the evidence afforded by the discoveries at Grime's Graves is so great, especially as illustrating early man's methods of obtaining flint and making implements, that a few further deductions may not improperly be given. The period to which the excavations may be unhesitatingly referred is that known as the Neolithic age, and probably it was towards the end of that age. Had it been early in the Neolithic age we should hardly have expected to find evidences of so extensive and so elaborate flint- mining. On the other hand if it had been the work of the Bronze age it is inconceivable that some articles of bronze, bartered for the excellent flint for which the place must have acquired a wide reputation, should not have been found. Again all the evidence shows that the operations of flint-mining were carried on for a long period. The antlers used as picks point to a tedious and laborious method of excavating, whilst the contents of the filled-up pits are so much mixed with broken bones and other refuse as to lead to the conclusion that they were in fact used as receptacles for rubbish from the human dwellings situated close by them. The sites selected for habitations in the Neolithic age seem to have been always such as were naturally well drained. The summits of hills 262
